Man Up, Campus Christians-Your Timidity Feeds the PC Beast

By: American Decency Staff

Ever since the Battle of Indiana, Rod Dreher has been quoting anonymous e-mails and other conversations with conservatives in higher education. The message from each of them is roughly the same: It’s worse than you think, if our views were known, we’d have real trouble on campus, and the campus is closing to Christian thought — with even Christian campuses bowing to the PC gods.

I have two responses to this. First, anyone facing social exclusion or career adversity because of their Christian or (especially) Christian conservative beliefs has my sympathy. Imagine, for a moment, working your entire life towards a career goal and then realizing that all that work could be rendered meaningless if your colleagues understand that you believe the Bible, that you can recite every word of the Apostles’ Creed (and mean it). Imagine the financial insecurity and the stress on your family at the thought that the wrong word at the wrong time could cost you your hard-earned job. I’ve been a Christian in Ivy League higher ed — both as a student and a teacher — and I know what it’s like. It’s not easy.

Second, man up anyway. You’re part of the problem.

I’m sorry, but I have a real problem — in an era when Christians are getting their heads sawed off in the Middle East — with the idea that, say, an American sociology professor feels to scared to proclaim his real beliefs on a liberal campus. I have a real problem — in an era when young Americans have been dying by the thousands in Afghanistan and Iraq in defense of liberty — with the idea that Americans on campus are too timid to even attempt to exercise those blood-bought freedoms. I have a problem with Christians — despite the example of Christ and the Apostles — who are too fearful to share the reason for their eternal hope. No one’s asking you to be a street preacher or some kind of unthinking loudmouth, but you should be ashamed of your timidity.

Every single person who is a Christian who stays “in the closet” — who’s timid about his or her faith — provides fuel to the PC fire, contributing to the notion that there really is something to be ashamed of, that what he believes is somehow wrong. 

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